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“How do you feel about celebrating Christmas in July?” Suga asked one morning in June.
“Christmas in July?” Daichi asked, looking up from the paper.
Suga nodded enthusiastically. “Tanaka called me about it the other day. He wanted to have some kind of get-together with the old team.”
It was funny how the phrase ‘old team’ was used among them to signify the year Karasuno made it back to nationals since the Little Giant graduated.
Daichi was confused. “It seems a bit convoluted, doesn’t it? I mean, why celebrate Christmas twice in a year?”
“Why not?!” Suga cried, looking affronted.
It was no shock considering it was Suga’s favorite holiday. If there was one thing Suga loved more than anyone else did, it was Christmas. No one was really sure why this was so, not even Suga. Christmas wasn’t exactly the most special holiday in Japan. If anything most people came to love New Years or, as they grew older and learned how great random breaks from school and work were, Golden Week. But Christmas was something Sugawara Koushi always held dear.
It was one of the things Daichi came to love about him.
Daichi had known Suga since high school. The two of them played volleyball together for three years, went to nationals together, graduated together. They went to different colleges, but lived close enough to see each other every week during their first two years. After that they ended up getting an apartment together.
No one really knew when they’d began dating. To be honest, even Daichi and Suga themselves weren’t sure. Being together just became as natural as breathing. One day sass turned into flirting, flirting turned into kissing, and kissing…well, let’s just say their relationship went from there. Their friends often joked that the couple hadn’t gone through the normal steps of dating, and that they went straight from being friends to being practically married.
Still, two years out of university and still sharing their comfortable little apartment wasn’t something either of them was complaining about.
Suga cleared away their dishes and put them in the sink. He always had to leave earlier than Daichi, so the former captain washed the dishes.
“I have get ready for work,” Suga said, giving Daichi a peck on the cheek. “Consider going to the party, okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Suga smiled and left to get dressed. He had gotten a job at a daycare soon after graduation, coming home with more finger paintings than the walls could hold and various food stains all over his clothing. But the smile he smiled when he told the stories about the toddlers he was responsible for reassured Daichi that Suga truly enjoyed what he was doing.
Daichi, conversely, was a salary man. His job wasn’t particularly exciting, but he’d recently been promoted and the pay was good. And his boss was an understanding and caring man, so his overtime hours weren’t tremendous and he was paid for them. Suga waiting for him (sometimes passed out on the couch with a book in his lap). Daichi usually made dinner, since Suga was a wreck when it came to cooking meat and vegetables.
There was also the added bonus of being called incredibly sexy wearing his business suits.
Suga came back downstairs wearing jeans and a comfortable button-up. His bag—the same one from high school, worn brown and familiar—was slung on his shoulder.
“I’m off. Make sure you don’t take too long before you leave.”
“I’ll be fine, Kou. Have a good day.”
“You too.”
. . . . . . . . . .
The day before the meet-up had the couple at the local grocery store. They had a system: Suga pushed the cart along as Daichi began to grab what they needed off the shelves. If not, Suga had a nasty habit of grabbing random things off of the shelf that caught his eye without Daichi’s supervision. And, as unexpected as it was, Daichi was the kind of person who found joy in running with the cart. It had cost him more than a few disapproving stares from everyone around them.
“Sugar?” Suga asked, looking down at his shopping list.
Daichi looked in the cart. “Check.”
“Flour?”
“Check.”
“Baking soda?”
He dug around a bit. “Yep, check.”
“Baking powder, vanilla extract, salt?”
“All accounted for.” Daichi pointed towards the dairy aisle. “I’ll go get the milk and eggs. Is there anything else we need?”
“Heavy cream and butter. I’ll be two aisles over. We need powdered sugar and chocolate.”
“Strawberries, yay or nay?”
Suga considered. “Yay. They’re on sale right now, and in season. We can get two packs.”
“Four if you’ll let me make jam too.”
“Only if you’re paying!”
Daichi rolled his eyes. They had a money jar for groceries; one never paid more than the other. “Then four packs.”
“Good for you!”
No one expected that Daichi was the one who had a sweet tooth out of the two of them. Suga’s love for spicy foods was one thing, but Daichi discovered he had quite a favor for jams in college since he practically lived off toast and various preserves his grandmother insisted on sending him.
Milk, butter, eggs, and heavy cream in hand, Daichi balanced them precariously in his arms as he took four packs of strawberries. They smelled wonderful. Daichi wondered for a second if it would be okay for him to buy more, but decided against it. They were already splurging for this “Christmas” party anyway. Best not be living off rice and bean sprouts for the next week.
Daichi rejoined Suga in the sweets aisle. The ash-haired man had put several bars of dark chocolate into the cart. But not baking chocolate.
“Thank you dear,” he said when Daichi dumped his armload of groceries into the cart. “Good thing the strawberries are so fresh! They’ll taste wonderful in a shortcake.”
“Shortcake? I thought you were going to make a chocolate one.”
Suga shrugged. “Changed my mind. Remember it’s Tsukishima’s favorite?”
“Why buy the chocolate then?”
Suga shrugged nonchalantly, but Daichi could see the impish grin on his face. “Oh, no reason. I just thought it’d be a good idea to have it around.”
“You’re trying to fatten me up, aren’t you?”
“You’ve lost weight since starting your job. I can tell you’re not eating enough, Dai. So just accept the fact that there may or may not be a piece of dark chocolate in your briefcase from time to time.”
Daichi was silent for a second. He hated admitting when Suga was right about these things. So he just grumbled, “You’re lucky I love you enough to ignore this.”
Suga giggled. He glanced left and right, making sure the coast was clear, before giving Daichi a peck on the cheek.
“Let’s go. It’s getting late. I want time to sleep before tomorrow.”
They walked a comfortable distance apart up to the register and out the store. The woman there gave them a questioning look when Daichi handed Suga his wallet, but said nothing. Once they were entering the calm of their cul-de-sac the two of them held hands, shopping bags slung to the side. It was during these little moments together that the two could exchange small gestures of fondness like this. Smiles, intertwining fingers, the occasional chaste kiss: all away from prying eyes.
Suga smiled over at Daichi. “Tonight’s dinner?”
“Let’s have leftovers. I don’t want to wash dishes twice tonight.”
. . . . . . . . . .
Though Daichi may have been the cook, Suga was the true baker. He had a knack for dealing with their demon oven that Daichi could not for the life of him figure out. And he’d taken baking classes at a local patisserie during college, so he actually knew what it meant to do various fancy things to cakes Daichi didn’t need. Impractical skills that only shone on days like this.
The day being at 9:00PM in July.
“Dai, can you mix this?” asked Suga, handing him the batter without looking. He let it go, completely absorbed with the recipe on his tablet that Daichi had to make a diving save for the glass bowl.
“Kou, please pay attention.”
“Hm?” He looked up. “What was that?”
Daich sighed. “Nothing. What did you want me to do?”
“Stir it. Add three of those little cups of sugar. It should be in the container on the counter.”
There were two containers on the counter: one blue, one green. Daichi remembered putting the salt in the green one earlier, so he scooped out three cups of sugar from the blue and began stirring. It was surprisingly hard work. The entire mixture was thickening quickly and Daichi was woefully out of shape despite still making time to run and lift on the weekends. He ended up rolling his t-shirt sleeves up all the way hoping to cool down a bit.
“Almost done?”
Daichi glanced up to see Suga was barely working. He was cutting the stems off of the strawberries, but other than that his eyes weren’t leaving Daichi. Specifically, his straining forearms.
“You’re only doing it so you can watch my arms, aren’t you?”
Suga grinned. “You caught me! But seriously, you mix way faster than me!”
That was a blatant lie, but whatever. Daichi shrugged and finished mixing as fast as he could without spilling the bowl’s contents. Meanwhile Suga chopped the strawberries into thin slices and threw them into a bowl with sugar sprinkled on top. He finished early enough to lean against the counter and watch Daichi, biting his bottom lip teasingly as his eyes roamed his boyfriend’s body.
“Like the view?” Daichi huffed, tired.
Suga raised an eyebrow, mouth quirking up at the corner. “Maybe. Are you done?”
“Not yet.”
“Oh. Good.”
After another minute Daichi handed Suga the bowl. “There, done.”
“Thanks!”
Suga already had the two cake pans greased and ready to go. He poured the contents out evenly between the two, using a spatula to scoop out the excess. The heathen oven was preheated as well. Suga smoothed out the batter and put the two pans into the oven.
“There. Those should be done in about forty minutes. Then we’ll let them cool and make the cream for it after that.”
He turned to find Daichi’s finger swiping at the rim of the now-empty bowl of cake mix.
“Don’t eat the batter!” Suga reprimanded him, slapping his hand away from the bowl. “You’ll ruin your stomach if you do that.”
“Don’t care. Besides, you already poured what you need into the pan. The leftovers are fair game.”
Suga just shook his head and turned his attention back to the oven. Daichi grinned, licking the cake batter from his fingers. His grin soon vanished. It was replaced with a look of pure disgust crossing his face.
“Hey…Kou…”
“What’s wrong? Don’t tell me your stomach’s that weak!”
Sugawara turned around, his face falling when he saw Daichi’s expression.
“What happened?”
“Koushi…that was the sugar, right?”
“I dunno Daichi, was it?” Suga was frowning. “You did put the sugar in the green container, right? Because the salt goes in the blue one.”
Daichi’s face paled. His boyfriend was staring at him wide-eyed.
“You didn’t!”
“I though the salt went in the green one!”
“Daichi!”
He hung his head, expecting a good tongue-lashing. Only to hear Suga snort. Wait, what?
Daichi looked up—or rather, down—at Suga. The former setter was hunched over slightly, hands gripping his stomach. His face was turning a brilliant shade of ruby red as he bit his quivering bottom lip. There were tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. He was taking shuddering breaths.
Daichi was confused, to say the least. “Um, Koushi?”
Suga was gasping as he spoke.
“Oh my goodness, Daichi! Do you know what this means?”
“That I messed up royally?”
“Well yes, that too. But think! We just baked a cake with salt. Salt!” Suga placed a hand on Daichi’s shoulder to stop himself from falling over. His face was flushed and there were tears in his eyes. “Imagine Tanaka’s face when he takes a bite of this one!”
“Kou!” Now it was Daichi’s turn to scold his cry-laughing boyfriend. “You can’t possibly expect us to serve this ruined cake at the party tomorrow! That’s just cruel and unusual punishment!”
“It’ll be great!”
“You’re awful!”
“It’s a waste if we don’t eat it. Think of how much we spent to make this cake.”
That got Daichi to pause. He saw the glint in Suga’s eyes and knew he was somehow going to lose this battle. But he wasn’t about to give up considering he had logic on his side.
“You’re going to have to give me one hell of a convincing argument as to why we’re going to be serving a salt-cake to our team, Koushi.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“I still can’t believe we’re doing this,” said Daichi as he slammed the car door shut.
Suga kissed him on the cheek. “They probably won’t notice right away. I put extra sugar in the icing and sugar-glazed the strawberries. Besides, everyone will be too polite to say anything if I tell them I made the cake. You, maybe not so much.”
“You’re a demon.”
“Take the cake?”
Daichi got the box without answering. “I hope losing all our friends is worth it.”
“I’m here for their reactions. And I told Kiyoko what we’re doing so she’ll be filming it!”
“Absolutely cruel,” the former captain said while shaking his head.
Their conversation ended there. The couple approached the group of people who was already gathered. It looked like most of the old team was there, although a particular loud duo was surprisingly absent.
Daichi placed the cake in an open cooler. Even if it was a monstrosity it had to look the part of a perfectly good strawberry shortcake. He looked up at the feeling of being watched. Sure enough a familiar figure was watching him with piercing gold eyes, face already lit up with glee.
“Dad and Mom’s here!” Noya announced loudly.
“Can you stop calling us that?” Daichi asked with a sigh. Suga didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, giving Noya a big hug and laughing. He also went along with the joke.
“How is my son doing all grown up?”
Noya guffawed. Daichi hid his face in his hands. Asahi, who was nearby, gave Daichi a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
“Don’t mind them.”
“I have to. My good name is in danger since Koushi and I are together.”
“Good!” Nishinoya said before turning back to Suga. “I heard you’ve replaced these kids with a bunch of small ones! You’re a teacher now, right? How is that? Are those snot-nosed brats nearly as cool as us?”
As loud as always, the couple thought. Suga answered the question calmly and then began telling Noya some stories about the toddlers. Noya seemed enthralled, and he was a good listener. He laughed at all the right times (very enthusiastically).
Meanwhile Daichi found himself sandwiched in between Asahi and Ennoshita. The three of them were nursing beers and catching up about life. Ennoshita had ended up going to film school in America, while Asahi took over his parent’s farm. They were joined a couple of moments later by Kinoshita and Narita.
Ennoshita waved them over. “Kazuhito, congrats on your engagement!”
“You’re engaged now?” Asahi asked. “Who’s the lucky girl?”
Narita scratched at the back of his head nervously. “Her name’s Kana. We actually met at a mixer Hisashi invited me to two years ago.”
“Well congratulations,” said Daichi warmly, clapping him on the shoulder. “You’ll make a great husband.”
“Here’s a toast to that!” Kinoshita said. He passed out more drinks, laughing.
Suga had taken a seat with Nishinoya, Kiyoko, Takeda-sensei, and Coach Ukai. Their two faculty advisors had barely changed. Their coach’s hair was black again (a shocker), and Takeda-sensei’s glasses were a bit smaller than before. Kiyoko was as radiant as ever, even in her simple blouse and skirt. Tanaka was nearby, listening in occasionally. He was busy grilling various meats and vegetables, but mostly meat.
Kiyoko nodded over to the other group of people who were away from the picnic area. “Daichi seems to be relaxing a bit.”
Suga smiled. “Thank goodness. He’s been wound up in stress since getting this job. I’m afraid it hasn’t been doing him much good.”
“But you two are happy, right?” asked his former coach. Suga nodded. “Good. As long as your happy I won’t be giving you life advice.”
Takeda-sensei turned to Nishinoya.
“How’s volleyball? I heard you’re going pro!”
Nishinoya’s smile was beyond radiant. “Yeah! It took a while since I’ve been playing with my college team for the last two years, but I’ll be playing in the World Cup this year! And I’ve just signed a contract with the Sakai Blazers, so I’m checking out apartments in Osaka.”
“Well, we’ll be sure to tune in! Osaka’s far away. You’ll be okay, right?”
“Don’t worry, sensei! I’m sure I’ll be fine. And as long as I’ve got volleyball I’ll be good! But enough about me!” Noya said (a first for him). “Let’s get ready to party! Yo Ryuu, how’s the grilling going?”
“It’s going!” Tanaka called. “Can someone let the standing people know we’re about ready to eat? I think I saw Yamaguchi and Tsukishima wander in a bit ago.”
“I’ll do it!” Suga volunteered, standing to get them.
“Suga-san!”
The ash-haired man looked up at the shout. His face broke into a sunny grin.
“Hinata! Kageyama!”
Daichi stood off to the side and watched as Suga was practically assaulted by their old kouhai. Hinata was as excitable as ever, unable to contain himself as he jumped around Sugawara. It was Kageyama’s shout and his arms eventually wrapping around the red-head’s waist that settled him down. Well, that was new.
Yachi emerged from the car; she had given them a ride, it seemed. Her arms were loaded with bags, which Yamaguchi and Tsukishima went to help her with. She dumped the chips and soda on the picnic table, huffing.
“Hi…everyone…”
There was a chorus of hellos.
“They haven’t changed at all, have they?” Ennoshita asked her.
“Nope!” Yachi agreed. “You should’ve seen them in college. I swear one of them would visit me once a week asking for advice on how to deal with the other! I think everyone thought they were dating before it ever happened!”
“Typical ignorance from the freak duo,” Tsukishima muttered into his beer. The surrounding party laughed.
“I guess so,” Narita said, “but they worked it out, so that’s all that matters.”
“Hinata kept texting Yamaguchi and Kozume about it. I knew everything.”
“Well well, the past is in the past! At least it’s solved!” said Yachi hurriedly.
Yamaguchi came over. “What are we talking about?”
“Kageyama and Hinata’s relationship!” Yachi chirped.
Yamaguchi started laughing a bit. “Oh boy! Hitoka-chan, remember when they broke up over a bowl of ramen in front of their whole college team second year, and Tobio came to your place and Shouyou came to mine in tears?”
“Don’t remind me…”
Everyone was laughing, but they were interrupted by Tanaka.
“Meat’s done grilling! Grab plates, grab chopsticks, grab more beer!”
The meal was enthusiastically eaten. They talked about everything under the sun it seemed: college, post-college, work, volleyball, relationships. It was an afternoon of reminiscing and celebration. They even began to play a game of volleyball after the meal, exhausting themselves enough to require eating a second meal.
Before long the sun began to dip under the horizon.
“Time to go?” Kageyama asked. Hinata was practically drooling on his shoulder, half-asleep. He wasn’t the only tired person there.
“I guess so—” Daichi started to say when Suga suddenly shouted, “WAIT!”
He cleared his throat when everyone stared at him. “Dai, the cake.”
Oh.
Oh.
While Daichi was doing everything in his power not to give away his distress, the rest of the tired team began to wake up. Hinata’s excitement was immediate.
“Cake? Suga-san, did you make cake? What kind of cake? Is it for us?”
“Calm down,” Tsukishima scolded.
Sugawara was completely unfazed. “Strawberry shortcake. And it wasn’t any trouble at all. I wanted to give this all to you since I took those baking lessons!”
Kiyoko and Yachi fell into their old manager roles, taking out the paper plates and plastic forks. Suga placed the box on the center picnic table as everyone gathered around.
Ennoshita called for attention. “Let’s thanks Daichi-san and Suga-san for bringing us a homemade cake today!”
There was cheering as Suga pulled the cake out of the cooler. He grinned as he unveiled it.
The whole team gasped when the cake was revealed. It had a fluffy white layer of whipped cream, piled high with strawberries. Not a single sugary puff was out of place. It truly was a beautiful cake.
Too bad it probably tasted like the bottom of a swimming pool with sugar on top.
“Would you like any, sensei?” Suga asked as he began to cut it.
“No, no! You boys enjoy it,” insisted Takeda. “It’s your get-together after all. I should probably lay off on the sweets at my age.”
Ukai added, “Besides, you two made it specially for the team, didn’t you?”
His tone was accusing. Daichi raised an eyebrow. So it seemed Coach Ukai and Takeda-sensei were in on it too. Now three other people knew their secret. He noticed Kiyoko pulling out her phone out of the corner of his eye. She had Yachi at her side, whispering something in the shorter girl’s ear that made her eyes go wide. Okay, so four people aside from him and Suga.
“Done!” Suga announced. “Everyone grab a slice!”
There was a flurry of movement. Thank yous were quickly said.
“Suga-san, Daichi-san, are you not going to eat any?” asked Kinoshita.
Suga answered for them. “No thanks! We already have some extra from baking waiting for us at home. We’d rather you guys enjoy it.”
Nothing had sounded any alarm bells for anyone. They all knew Suga was at least a decent baker, and Daichi only ever complimented his pastries. No one suspected a thing as they each grabbed a slice of cake and said their thanks.
It started off as if there was nothing wrong. Each person took a large forkful of cake and began to eat. Everything was fine for about two-point-three seconds.
Then came the reactions.
Kageyama was probably the least subtle. He choked, turned a bit blue in the face, and rushed to get water. Hinata watched him go in confusion until his face also began to contort. Ennoshita stared at his plate, Narita put his down. Kinoshita had subtly spit into his napkin. Asahi was frowning, staring straight at Suga with a look of betrayal. Tanaka’s expression was the most confusing of all. He seemed hung up between wanting to leave and wanting to cry.
“Is everything alright?” Suga asked sweetly. His eyes were wide and questioning. Daichi and Kiyoko exchanged a look and a brief nod; looks like everything was going according to plan.
Tanaka’s face pinched up slightly, but he was obviously forcing himself not to give any negative feedback to Sugawara’s feigned innocence. He swallowed thickly and nodded.
“S’great, Suga-san. You have…a real gift. Daichi must be lucky.”
“Oh, I am!” said Daichi genuinely. After all, aside from this cake fiasco Suga’s baking was actually really good. “He does all the baking. I usually cook though.”
“Oh. That’s…good.”
It was dead silent. Everyone was eating the cake as quietly as possible. Each bite was only smaller and smaller.
Tsukishima, they noticed, hadn’t taken a bite. He was watching everyone with his usual calculating stare. After a long moment he reached over to his slice of cake and took off the top strawberry. Nothing else.
Ah, I figured if anyone would figure it out, it would be him, Daichi thought. It seemed he wasn’t the only one. Suga gave Tsukishima a token smile. The middle blocker frowned a bit at that. He only reached over to take the cake from Yamaguchi who had, thankfully, not eaten any yet. The freckled man looked confused, but said nothing.
Oddly enough, Noya was enjoying the cake.
“Suga-san, this is great! You’ll have to send me a recipe!”
Suga was genuinely surprised. “Um, okay. You’ll have to ask Daichi for the recipe. He helped me make it.”
“Cool! Was there a secret ingredient? It’s really good!”
Well, that was unusual. Suga and Daichi glanced at each other and shrugged. They were pulled back to reality at Noya’s loud interjection.
“Ryuu, oh my gosh, are you crying?! That’s hilarious! Is it that good?”
Daichi had to turn his back on that one, unable to mask his attempts to not laugh at the team’s misery. He knew it was a horrible thing they’d done, but Suga was right: it was worth seeing everyone’s faces. Except for Noya. It seemed he was strangely immune to the disgusting cake contents.
“You should tell them the truth,” Kiyoko whispered to the couple. “I think Hinata-kun’s trying too hard to enjoy it, and Ennoshita-kun looks like he’ll pass out.”
“Is Asahi-kun okay?” asked Takeda-sensei. “He looks like he may be sick.”
Yachi was digging around in her bag. “I swear I have some medicine for upset stomachs…”
Well, might as well not drag the torture out any longer.
“You wanna do the honors?” asked Daichi.
Suga laughed. “Are you kidding? It’s your fault they’re dying. You tell them.”
Daichi nodded, wiping the last of his tears away. He turned to the miserable former-Karasuno and clapped his hands.
“Um, so I have something I need to confess…”
. . . . . . . . . .
In the end Suga and Daichi made it up to the team by taking them all out for cake.
And Noya finished the rest of the salt cake without any complaint.